Avoid Torn Ligaments, Tendons - Exercise Properly!

Many of my patients are very active and exercise every day. It's a good thing, but some of them overboard or fail to warm up properly and end up with torn ligaments and / or tendon. It can be very painful and may require surgery to repair. Instead of being active and feeling good, and common sports injuries can have a sit on the sidelines for several weeks.

If you are someone who is often realized, I want to talk to you about how to take care of their ligaments and tendons to avoid injury. First let me give you some basic anatomy lesson on what your ligaments and tendons and injuries that commonly occur.

ligaments and tendons help to Move

When you think that in your daily limit, whether you realize that there are several ligaments and tendons in the ankles, knees, hips, that if they were not there, your feet would not be able to move properly? Or when you play basketball, they allow the shoulder to the hand so that you can do to slam dunk? This is true. Without them, I can not participate in your favorite sports. That is why they are so important to consider before exercising.

ligaments are flexible cord like structures that are attached to your bones. They connect bones / joints together so that they can move properly. They act like shocks in your car, absorbing the impact of your movements on their bones. Although ligaments are very flexible and have lots of curves and give them they can sometimes give you too far, extending beyond their borders and sprain or sometimes even tears.

Tendons ligaments are very similar, they are made of basically the same material as their own collagen ligaments, but they have a different job. Tendons attach muscles to your bones so that your muscles and skeletal structures to move along when you go on the run. Tendons are also very flexible and stretch very little. Like ligaments, however, can stretch too far and strain and / or tear, as well.

Common Injuries to ligaments and tendons

There are many ways you can injure the ligaments and tendons that are not involved in sports activities. For example, in a job that requires repetitive movements of lifting heavy objects above your head can put pressure on your shoulder, elbow, wrist and ligaments and tendons. If you do a lot of walking while at work, or are on their feet most days, you could put stress on ankles, knees, hips, knees and especially the Achilles tendon and ligaments.

However, most of the ligament and tendon injuries come from participating in sports, especially where there is a direct foot / ground impact, or players crunching into one another, falling or running into barriers. Let's look at some of the most common, starting from the shoulders down:

• AC injury: acromioclavicular ligament - a big word that can be a big pain. 40% of ACL injuries occur in sports that involve primarily the shoulders and upper arms as well as basketball, baseball, football, and even over the job training with weights. An injury to one or all 4 of the ACL ligament usually occurs either direct force - during the fall directly on the shoulders with hands held sideways or indirect effect - during the fall on an outstretched arm. There are six degrees of severity of injury to the ACL ligament, all depending on how much the damaged ligament. Symptoms:. Pain and swelling over the shoulder joint, and restricted movement due to pain, diarrhea or wrong movement of the shoulder joint itself

• UCL / LCL injury: and the lateral ulnar collateral ligaments - these are two ligaments in the elbow that can be damaged to repetitive movements back and forth so that they appear in the "throwing "sports such as baseball (most common), football and racquet Sports such as tennis, hockey, water polo, javelin. Symptoms:. Pain, sometimes swelling on the inner elbow, bruising, if the ruptured ligament, closing / opening the hand, causing pain fist

• elbow tendinitis: Tennis elbow and golfer's elbow are the most common elbow injury and affect the median (middle) and lateral (lateral) epicondyles (tendon) ulakat. It is a painful inflammation and stiffness caused by excessive and may recur frequently. It occurs most often in Racquet Sports or activities where there is repeated back and forth movement of the elbow. Symptoms:. Pain, swelling, joint stiffness, loss of range of motion

• ACL injuries: anterior cruciate ligament is one of the four stabilizing ligaments in koljenu.ACL sprain or tear is a very common injury in people who exercise moderately to strongly, and there most often in women. This occurs from the force placed on the knee from twisting movements of the body, where the feet are planted firmly on the ground, overstretching the ligaments. Symptoms:. Pop or crackling sound at the time of injury can be heard, it was very painful swelling of the knee occurs, and you can not straighten out the leg

• achilles tendon injury: Achilles tendon is the largest and thickest tendon in the body and connects the heel to the calf muscles. It may be the subject of several times body weight pushing off while driving or sprinta.Ahilova tendon can be injured in support of improper shoes, accident, or even some medications can weaken it. Achilles tendon tightness is also associated with heel spurs, which can be very painful and to prevent any foot / ground impact sport for several weeks. Symptoms: pain / stiffness especially getting stressed out postelje.Ahilej tears can start with a sudden he heard a pop at the time of injury with immediate pain and inability to stand on the leg.

treatments for a sprained or strained ligaments and tendons

If you ever had a ligament or tendon injury, you know how painful and debilitating it can be. Treatment of these injuries will depend on how badly damaged a ligament or tendon. In mild to moderate injuries, treatment usually includes:

• RICE formula (rest, ice, compression, elevation)

• short course of anti-inflammatory drugs.

Elbow and shoulder tendon ligament injury may take longer to heal as it is difficult to fully relax the ligaments and tendons in these areas.

More severe sprains and / or tears can often include the following:

• Operations on the tendon or ligament to restore proper tension to the bone joint / in proper alignment for proper movement. X-rays and / or MRI films are used to see how badly the ligament or tendon injury.

• Arthroscopic surgery anterior cruciate ligament in the knee is sometimes necessary to repair the ligament. Under anesthesia, a few connections are made in the knee to insert the Arthroscope to allow the surgeon to see / repair the ligament directly.

• The AC ligament tears or separations: Reconnective / reconstructive surgery is often necessary.
Recovering from ACL and AC ligament injuries can be slow and may require several weeks of physical therapy. After that treatments include a whirlpool, range of motion exercises, direct ultrasonic stimulation, heat and / or ice to the affected areas.

Prevention of ligament and tendon injuries

As I tell my patients, the best way to avoid injury to the ligaments and tendons to make sure you take time to warm up before exercise. I can not stress how important this is, especially for people just starting to exercise regimen, as well as ligament and tendon injuries can severely limit your enthusiasm for future exercises. Here are some basic tips on how to warm up any part of the ligaments and tendons that are most prone to injury:

• General straining: lying on the floor, raise your arms above your head and stretch like a cat does, slowly twisting in several directions. Do this for about 5 minutes, breathing deeply as you go. Your muscles, tendons, ligaments all need oxygen to fire properly.

• shoulder shrug / rotation: Slowly shrug your shoulders, bring them up to your ears, and they rotate slowly backwards. This weakens the tension in the large muscles of the neck and shoulders.

• elbow: stretching. Keep your arms straight, slowly bend your arm / hand back toward you to the middle position and stop, cut your hand back down

• extends the leg: Stand up straight, bend over and touch the tips of the fingers, and then slowly, gradually try to flatten your palm on the floor. Be sure to keep your feet flat on the floor and do not turn aside. It stretches your hamstrings tight and weakened knees and leg muscles.

• achilles stretches: Stand in front of the wall, about 1 foot away from him, lean against the wall, placing the palms of your hands on it. Extend one leg back behind you on the ball of your foot. Slowly, deliberately, refuse your heels toward the floor. It extends from the Achilles tendon and helps to avoid heel spurs, and from a tight Achilles dragging the calcaneus bone.

• Weight Train. Start with light weight training to strengthen the ligaments and tendons, gradually build a

• to get enough sleep. Inadequate sleep not allow your muscles, tendons, ligaments to strengthen again properly and makes them more prone to injury

• drink water! Your muscles, ligaments and tendons, the water should move smoothly and remove lactic acid that builds up during exercise. It also helps create the proper fluid for the joint cushioning. Drink half your body weight in ounces of water daily, more if you exercise in very hot and humid weather. Sports drinks can help keep you hydrated.

Exercise makes your world of good health. Injuries to ligaments and tendons, however, can really put a damper on your fitness goals. It is better to do a little exercise everyday, but do the 'weekend warrior thing and wind up straining and / or hurting yourself. Remember, exercise should be fun and not be something that will land on the couch watching television, waiting to heal!

Mark Bromson, MD